It might be hard for some of us to believe, but cork is useful for more than just stopping up our favorite bottle of wine - a concept that Britain's Bartlett School of Architecture sought to convey with their very cool 'Centipede Cinema.' Designed as a temporary public intervention for Portugal's historic city of Guimarães (which is the 2012 European Capital of Culture), the pop-up cinema features a steel frame and two different kinds of locally-sourced, sustainable cork.

Led by Colin Fournier, the Centipede Cinema is an urban intervention that demonstrates how easily exciting new cultural programs can be developed with minimal costs. It also reveals that cork, which is ubiquitous in Portugal, can be used in architecture as well as its other more conventional uses. The outside of the freestanding cinema is clad in a lighter colored cork while the interior is clad in dark cork to create a blackout effect.

Yellow nozzles protrude from the bottom of the cinema. These allow anybody to pop in to watch a film for as short or long a time as they desire. There is room for sixteen people and three different 20 minute films have been looping since the structure’s opening on 20 Oct, 2012. Inspired by the Guimarães CineClube (CCG), a leftist cultural organization, this fantastic design is somewhat oddly-placed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. But we love it all the same.